Patrick Geddes’s Intellectual Origins

Murdo Macdonald is Emeritus Professor of History of Scottish Art at the University of Dundee. He was editor of Edinburgh Review from 1990-1994. He is author of Scottish Art in Thames and Hudson’s World of Art series.

Superb new study of Geddes. Very well researched, drawing on new material as well as earlier work. Detailed notes will be extremely useful to other researchers. And written in a clear accessible style - unlike some academic books. Strongly recommended whatever aspect of Geddes's work is of most interest - biology, ecology, town planning, environmental improvement, cultural renewal, university education.

• Chapter 1 Patrick Geddes and the Scottish Intellectual TraditionA generalist among generalists Disciplines and interdisciplinarity Visual thinking and interdisciplinarity Presbyterianism and interdisciplinarity Art and scienceChapter 2 Geography, History and PlaceBallater and Perth The Black Watch Garden and world Dundee, Edinburgh and London France and MexicoChapter 3 Arts, Crafts and Social ReformEdinburgh in the 1880s The Edinburgh Social Union James Mavor and The Scottish Arts Review The Arts and Crafts Congress of 1889Chapter 4 Patrick Geddes, D’Arcy Thompson and the Early Years of University College DundeeThe Dundee Naturalists’ Society Patronage for a ProfessorChapter 5 Education, Anarchism and Celtic Revival in EdinburghUniversity Hall: buildings as interdisciplinary educationA party with KropotkinThe New EvergreenChapter 6 Manifestos in Word and ImageThe murals of Ramsay Garden The Evergreen: A Northern SeasonalChapter 7 Models of CelticismThe Celtic Library William Sharp and Alexander CarmichaelChapter 8 Interdisciplinarity and Cultural RevivalAn international summer meeting The Outlook Tower as generalist collegeChapter 9 Paris 1900: Local Revival as Global ProjectThe Paris Universal Exhibition Looking to India: Geddes, Vivekananda and NiveditaChapter 10 City Development as Interdisciplinary ProjectThe Dunfermline Plan: institutes of science, history and artCities in evolutionChapter 11 Ecological Research in DundeeEcology as a science: Geddes’s students and Bartholomew’s mapping The British Association Meeting of 1912Chapter 12 Dramatising the Past and Informing the FutureMasques of learning Saint Columba as point of reference Coomaraswamy, Indian art, and Celticism Encyclopaedias and colleges Publishing and the masquesChapter 13 Looking EastBaha’ism and Theosophy Celtic revival and Bengali revival Scottish interdisciplinarity in Indian reflection Sunwise turn and dance of ShivaChapter 14 A Farewell LectureMoving on from DundeeAn Italian codaAppendix 1 Patrick Geddes: a visual primer in ten imagesAppendix 2 List of Murdo Macdonald’s writings about Patrick Geddes and his milieu